Lawn and garden vehicles typically have wheels on opposing sides of the vehicle which are selectively interconnected through a variable speed transmission and clutching mechanism to an engine. The wheels themselves are normally also braked. Typically the controls for this transmission and brake are mounted on the handlebars, typically with individual lever controls for the right and left sides in walk behind mowers. Examples of this may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,920,734, 4,991,382, 4,967,543, 5,127,215, and 5,146,735. In these units, some sort of levers which are mounted on either side of the handles of the lawn mower are utilized to control the wheel drive systems. In all cases, the operator maintains a separate solid interconnection directly to the handlebars as well.